Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1887-05-21
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
An Interesting Letter from q Lyon
County Traveller.

j
ED. TIMEs:-I take advantage of the
friendly columns Of your paper to address
many old friends who were promised let
ter. 1t is always of interest to see or hear
OF new or strange countries, and were my
pen equal to the task and the columns of
the TIMES long enough and numerous
enough, l should delight in painting pen
picture Of this county as see it. Without
intent to be vain of my migratory habits, |
might say that / had seen something of
Uncle Sans broad domain from Arkansas
to the Carolinas and from Minnesota to Lou
isiana, but the groves Of orange, lemon, fig,
| olive and walnut trees; the the thousands Of
beautiful homes everywhere buried in trees OF
ever green and smothered in fragrant never.
| dying flowers was a new revelation to me,
| and altogether indiscribable. And all this
the growth of six to twelve years, the Oldest
| settlers having been here about fourteen
| years. At that time this section was an i'm
mense field of mustard weeds, with but
few venturesome pioneers who vainly tried
to make living by growing barley to ship
to San Francisco Now the orange crop is
|
| hundred carloads remaining, OF which this
little valley of Santa Ana has about one.
third. l do not in this letter intend to at
tempt description of this country, or a re.
port of its resources, productions or prices.
l may, however, take up the subject again.
AS there are many who are doubtless inter-
ested in crop prospects in this State, allow
me to go back little and remark that the
indications from Stockton to MERGED are very
poor; from MERGED TO Fresno much better.
Make note of this, and remember that it is
my impression formed after drive of many
miles through the green fields, blooming
orange and lemon orchards and magnificent
| vineyards; good look at the raisin dryers
and wineries. and having reports OF its lum-
| Der and mining interests, that Fresno county
has more sources OF wealth than any county
| was ever in. And this opinion is not the
least influenced by the fact that our party
visited what is considered the finest though
no the largest winery in the State, and
sampled the delicious wet goods. / found
at Fresno a relative, and also met there our
old Mason Valley friend J. A. Webster, who
| is doing we'll in the drug business. Leaving
! that point in the evening, after stay of
| twenty -four hours, we woke up the next
morning in the county of the Angels
should say land agents. / have been
searching Tor two weeks 10 find some man
who is not real estate dealer or a tender.
foot. Should l find him l shall certainly
make stake by exhibiting him. l am dis
couraged though at my prospect. We took
lock at Pasadena where l have friends,
and l have not the least hesitancy in saying
that it is the finest little town l ever saw.
There is more wealth to the "front foot"
THAT is the way property is estimated here)
and enterprise, too, than in any burg OF
5000 people in the known world. There
seems to be great many wealthy people in
the Eastern States who are willing to pay
for climate, fine views, sea breeze, mountain
air and scenery. Pasadena is luckily the
possessor of all these, and has also the
semi opical fruits and flowers; and cease
not to remember that her people are aware
of the fact. While it certainly requires
many shckels to have a fine house in Passa-
dena, as in other countries, yet there is great
demand for all kinds of labor at good prices.
Common loborers get 81 per day, while men
with teams are in demand at S. per day.
The amount Of improvements being made is
simply wonderful. Grading streets and lots,
laying water pipes and cultivating vineyards
is the work aside from the building S"hich is
going on everywhere in the county. Sons of
the old residents are lamenting the destruc-
ton Of their fine places by the widening Of
the streets to 100 feet. The town OF Santa
Ana is thirty miles almost directly south OF
Los Angeles. 1t is in the midst of the Cit
rus fruit country and is now the terminus OF
the Southern Pacific X. X. and contains
about 2,ooo people. 1t is not booming like
the city Of the Angels or Pasadena, but is
doing good strong business, erecting some
very fine buildings, many comfortable homes,
and real estate in that vicinity is steadily
advancing in value. Tustin City, three
miles east, is the Oakland Of Santa Ana, and
is connected with the last mentioned place
by a street railway. The towns of Orange,
Anaheim and Carlham, all thriving places,
are within q radius of five miles. Santa
Ana Valley is probably the richest in its
productions OF any part Of this county. The
soil will produce everything. The olive
seems at home beside the field OF alfalfa,
the pomegranate grows in the barley field,
and the yellow corn and bananas grow to-
gether. Evergreen hedges of lime, cypress
and geraniums and climbing roses hide the
houses. Rose trees grow too high to men
ton, and above all towers the mighty euca.
lyptus. Yet greater than all these is the
main crop-the crop Of immigrants. Well,
say what you will, fight it as you may, it
will not down, you cannot stop it. l found
some Nevada people here, among them J.
w. Ballard, sometime assistant clerk Of the
Assembly and our old friend Barnett, for
merly Of the Mound House, is station agent
at Santa Ana. When l first came here the
new order OF things made me tired and
homesick, but all is serene now. 1t happen
ed in this way. was in a sound sleep
when was awakened by great roaring, as
of the rush of mighty waters, and my trst
bewildered thought was that l again stood
below the great falls Of the Yosemite Valley,
but mine host Bunely singing out, "helo,
K, this is a reg lar old Santa Ana wind"
But l knew better. don't care what it is
called in this little corner, it was real old
fashioned Washoe zephyr, in q small way.
Just such as we all enjoyed ~ in the sage
brush land. 1t had the same old ear marks,
clouds of dust, etc., and seemed to be